Russell Reising is Professor of American Culture and Asian Studies, University of Toledo, Ohio
The book's strength is the astonishingly broad palette of disciplines it covers. Some chapters focus on the individual players (including the sidemen and producers) or concentrate on the analysis of a single song (including rare b-sides) while others deal with larger topics such as sexuality, ethics, psychedelia, disability, production techniques, or the staging of live performances. For such a panopticon, a good structure is needed and the editor really did his best to create a convincing 'set list'. It all holds together by concentrating on Beggars Banquet, the LP with which the band reinvented themselves and found their style for the decades to come. 50 years later, this is the book such a musical milestone deserves! Dr Ralf von Appen, Justus-Liebig-Universitat Giessen, Germany